The objectives of this proposal are: 1) To develop a primate animal model system of infant (infectious) botulism, using the rhesus monkey, that will permit exploration of the role of nutrition in the pathogenesis of infant botulism. 2) To use this experimental model to investigate how severity of the disease may depend on milk source. 3) In particular, to determine whether the findings observed in our epidemiologic studies, namely, that formula milk appears to predispose to the fulminant, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, crib death) form of infant botulism, can be reproduced experimentally in primates. 4) To determine whether supplementary dietary iron (common in infant formulas and cereals) may, independent of its presence in formula, serve to enhance the growth of Clostridium botulinum in the intestine, as was also suggested by our epidemiologic studies.